Walk the Talk

Today I want to give a big shout out to 25 highlights who’ve offered layers of depth and meaning about what it means to Walk the Talk. I started this podcast to share stories and sources of inspiration along that well-worn cliché of accountability and integrity in what you stand for and how you approach your life’s work and relationships.Thanks to people who were willing to share their thoughts and personal stories, this show has grown into so much more. It’s been bringing together the hashes from all the rehashing of that phrase.It’s the way you go about asking life’s biggest questions – from everything that’s here on earth, to everything that’s out in space. Bob: having seen the effects of climate change first hand…Kamran: found myself reading about Woodrow Wilson, Aldís…Catherine: I’m working on ancient climate change...Shubham: the atmosphere of Venus is like a living hell for humansIt’s about how you approach your day to day, with grit and dedication. Aryn: one time I walked 60 blocks because the compost wasn’t where it usually wasDaniel: get some sweat in, shower, and I’m ready to start my day… 6AM except SundaysIt’s about how you take care of yourself and others in times of need.William: When you do the white coat ceremony, you remember you’re really here to take care of people and patients.Adam: Everyone in my family is under my care of the longevity diet and I’m happy to report they’re doing quite well.How you find ways to be whole in a system that seeks to channel you in one way or another Assaad: I went back into ballroom dancing; there’s more to life than – at that point – law school And it’s about setting an example, whether or not others choose to follow it – by inspiring others to choose their own course of action on the causes they care about. Audrey: I have this whole stack of old t-shirts and a forever shortage of underwear, and I recently had the brilliant idea to just turn those darn t-shirts into underwear!Erik: I don’t want to compromise in the way I live my life, and so going electric feels like small way to say I’m committing to a better future.Sydney: Once you’ve committed for enough time, I’ve noticed that I don’t view animal products as food anymore.Shannon: That's a good example for my biology students because we talk about conservation and I’m running and biking and so simultaneously reducing my carbon footprint.Gabrielle: It’s difficult to walk the talk if you don’t have people who’re going to check you. You need those friends who're going to say 'you said you weren't going to eat chicken today, why are you eating chicken?'It’s about stepping into your role as an authentic creator of whatever it is you do in your life. Asking how you can best apply yourself to problems that really matter, and what it is you truly want to pursue – not because someone says you should but because you want to. Stan: aerobus zero gravity experimentsSushen: going deep into a subject of interestPeter: to address accessibility problems with AINeil: because I started to realize that business is a good way to bring about changes that can be hard to make in the public or non-profit sector.Aldís: It's really a lifelong goal to be part of this climate movement and move the dial forward on solutions for the planet and its peopleKamran: I always want to be a first an ideas person before I’m a technical or legal professional if you willBrabeeba: So actually I didn't have a specific concentration; I switched every year. [gasp!]It’s about defining your identity; building relationships that enhance your life and tapping into your immense capacity to love many people in no particular order.Peter: I have a lot of love for my metamourSydney: Let's question these conventions a little bit more and find out what we actually wantUpending existing power structures in politics, law, the workforce; alleviating the visceral burden on people of color in a system that favors white. Kamran: All of these movements at their core are really about injustice and unjust powerGabrielle: When I do embody that power that I have as a Black femme, they don’t know what to do with it!It’s about having the tenacity to see your visions come to life through music, multimedia art, movement, everyday objects, physical canvas, digital media, and your writing. Assaad: Just plugging along with my writer’s group; at the time of recording, I'm writing Chapter 7.Noah: Improvisation streaks where I'll sit down play for like 5 hours.Gustav: Essentially my life has been mostly about art.Nathan: We built this little device that can do digital contact tracing [for COVID]Emma: If you work hard but don't take things too seriously, it's fine.It’s about how your life may be an expression of your most radical and daring ideas when you have the courage to speak your mind and walk your talk. Cameron: We’re drawing from a ton of collective knowledge, enriching the hive mind, the collective.Sinwah: anytime I can earn money, but to chase my dream is something I can only do when I’m within 20s.This podcast is a place where we openly explore these questions and your unique answers. What’s your talk, and how do you walk it?

Music in this episode: (0:00) "Improv in NYC - 1" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKeHgnoadyQ (15:30) "My Song 37 Longer" by Noah Fechtor-Pradines (I am in love with this song!)Noah Fechtor-Pradines is a quantitative researcher living in New York City who composes and plays the piano in his free time. Most recently he has also picked up the violin and started taking socially-distanced lessons! We talk about his creative process, music theory as the "grammar" of music, and improvisation as the "immersion" of becoming fluent in the universal language that is music.I was 11 years old I think.(0:30) That’s when Noah first started playing the piano. Sometimes I hated lessons and practicing but I loved the piano. I think it was something my parents suggested as something I should consider, and I was like sure! But then I loved it and continued.(0:50) His first exposure to improvisation was at the end of high school, at school assemblies, when people would come in and out of the auditorium for the national anthems.I went to a British school so we'd sing the British and United States national anthems.And afterwards, I’d stick around, just playing things easy on the ears, not like elevator music but pleasant things.(1:30) When he’s alone with the piano it’s a very intimate process of creativity.I just turn off all the lights, and play by feel. It’s very much a mood thing.(2:30) I asked if he was then comfortable making such improvisations public on YouTube.I get full control over what I put up there, and I’m comfortable playing in public.And I’m getting more comfortable with making mistakes in a recording and still posting it. (2:55) I was also curious whether putting his improvisations up on YouTube changed what he played in any way.Well there’s meter and dissonance … joke about band tripping over missed beat.But even the set up is a barrier. [You need a real piano, I say, and laughter]. I do need a real piano. I really do. Actually one of the things I miss is trying out pianos at the Steinway Store.I think they’re willing to bet that in 20 years, there’s a high chance I’ll have such positive associations with them that I’ll buy a Steinway over another brand.(6:00) We talked about some of the other things he misses during COVID lockdown, like live concerts and jam sessions with fellow musicians.It’s been like over a year. [Netherlands street musicians]So jealous… I live for that stuff!I was at a salsa dance gathering in Boston and there was one of those "Play Me I'm Yours" pianos. I started playing and some guy joined me - it was great!There’s a spot in Union Square where people often play music, and I'll be going to work or coming back from work, and there'll be a saxophone screaming down the subway. Those are the moments that make life exciting. I miss it so much.(8:10) Being around people in person, and hearing live music (or YouTube productions of novel scores) function at the core of his improvisational inspiration.Sometimes It’s hard to be creative when there’s nothing to draw inspiration from.When I hear something I don’t understand, the process of understanding it is one of the most creative moments for me.A big part of my process is just figuring out what I liked about what I heard, and playing it in as many different possible ways as I can think of, and that happens over the course of maybe 5 hours.(9:04) Those are the kernels of inspiration. And I love that he calls them kernels because it's such a mathematical expression. 100% a mood thing, just have to be in the mood and the moment.[I remember you were very inspired after a movie and composed my song longer 37…]I have a whole bunch of unfinished thoughts that I just abandoned… don’t really know where they are now… [oh no!](10:40) You know Neil Gaiman? There’s his idea of compost pile…Yeah, it sort of needs to sit there for a while, before the flowers bloom.[and sometimes methane comes out]Right, we don’t record those… [laughter][Or we do and delete them... they never see the light of day](12:09) What have you been doing musically creatively? he asked me.[Actually I've started improvising on violin. I was inspired by you, and the way you can create sweeping phrases and beautiful sounding chords… but I don’t know music theory.]I actually have an opinion about music theory… First of all, everyone’s biased toward the way they learned things, but I think I knew a lot more music theory from just improvising. So taking music theory class was just learning what those things were called.(13:54) It’s like grammar for language… music theory for music.Yeah, like who do I consider more fluent: someone who knows all the grammatical rules for Spanish or someone who lived in Spain for three years and speaks it fluently?(14:08) So improvisation is the immersion of the musical world of communication and creation.I think one of the things that’s bolstered my violin the fastest is I have this practice regimen... but then I explore what’s possible, and what the patterns are.(15:50) And he’s almost done with book 1 of Suzuki after 2 months. Suzuki is popular among teachers of beginner violinists.My teacher makes my progress sound impressive but then he’s comparing me with 7 year olds [laughter][Once you learn one instrument, easier to learn the next](16:17) But he’s got a unique goal that sets him apart from students, possibly of any age.I just want to be familiar enough that I can understand it and play creatively and write stuff that involves it.[Cool because composers need to know how to play the other instruments they write for…]It’s so different! The attack is different.When I see a whole note over two measures, piano brain sees that and thinks nothing’s happening. [So it’s going to change what you write for violin] Yeah, yeah it’s going to change.But I’m already having a ball just squeaking out notes.(18:06) There is a violin store that’s open, and Noah’s been trying out violins.The guy Lukasz Wronski was like here you try this one, I be back in an hour.This one better, try!(18:59) He ended up finding out the violin-maker’s story at the violin shop while he was trying out violins… so we’ll close with this anecdote.When he was 14 he went to get his violin fixed, and the maker ended up teaching him how to fix it himself. Eventually he started making his own violins!There’s so much craft that goes into these things... damn.(19:40) Thank you Noah for joining me for this final highlight of the year! Keep on creating, y'all.

Emma Colligan teaches 50 young violin students at her School of Violin in New Zealand. She also performs with Orchestra Wellington and does freelance gigs. In 2006, she was studying her Violin Performance Masters at the Longy School of Music and ended up structuring all her courses around her favorite teacher and mine: Mr. Mark Lakirovich.(0:11) Story of how we met at Longy School of Music and studied with Mark Lakirovich. She also taught me violin while studying pedagogy with him. (1:22) I asked her if anything carried over in her teaching. "Totally! Basically everything!"(2:13) Reminiscing "You couldn't really repeat that time of my life. I was in the right place at the right time to get that experience; just kind of lucky. I just remember spending hours in that teaching room, and it was always an hour behind - and it didn't bother me at all! – and you kind of just knew that if you were last you were not gonna start on time, but you had to show up on time just in case." But then you'd get to listen in to the previous or next lesson, and that's such good teaching too. "It was so cosy and timeless!"(3:36) "I just found it fascinating, watching. Especially when he was working with younger students, seeing how he was going to develop them and the order he was going to do things in. I'd never seen him working with such talented kids where it makes a massive massive difference how you deliver and what you give."(4:16) Emma would always have a notebook with her, and she'd bring it to our private lessons as well. (4:32) She read an entry from the notebook about a hilarious way Mark delivered the feedback. "Have you invented a new bow direction? Sideways?" "You've knocked on the wrong door. D-flat is D's neighbor. Hear the D-flat before you move. Second finger will take you up."(5:40) Reminiscing cont. about the usefulness of Mark's practice techniques. "Rhythm practice, double stop practice..." (6:13) Emma's students love her "I just try to get them to love violin, but I actually think most of them (barring maybe 5 to 10) cause I've got about 50 kids – I think most of them just come to hang out with me, and talk to me about stuff that's going on at school. They just think that it's fun. But at the same time that's just good. Obviously we're still doing violin stuff. If you enjoy that part of your day it will translate into you liking the violin."(7:40) It's not all jolly fun – "You get pretty tired quite quickly; it's a lot of energy. And you always have to be thinking ahead and if you're not really feeling it you have to act like you are. But the kids usually make me feel better and they'll say something really funny."(8:52) "Sometimes I have to write them down without letting them see that I'm writing them down. Cause I know that I'll find it funny later."(9:20) "Now I'm on my long break. No teaching until first of February. And I find that I really need that time. Kind of like your June-July"(9:47) This year isn't the year for a summer academy(9:55) Mr. Mark answering the phone calls from composers we were playing.(10:08) The Russian we learned at lesson :) "Da" "Horosho" "Baka"(10:27) Have you talked to him at all? He asked me to teach at Cremona, an International Music Academy.(11:02) Rescinded – "I don't think we'll be going to Cremona because of Corona." and I thought it was a joke but I saw the news. (11:46) So things got real.(12:00) "I remember thinking nah it's gonna be fine. Nothing ever happens in New Zealand."(12:57) "Everyone did what we were supposed to do. People really care about each other and our country. And if you weren't doing what they're supposed to be doing, people would look at you like you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing." (13:30) Prime Minister and government officials in NZ made it easy to follow rules at each level of lockdown. "I kind of wish I was best friends with her. The other week I played a gig for the opening of Parliament, so I snuck a photo in." Perks of being a kiwi: essentially COVID-free country!(14:39) "During lockdown level 4, which lasted 8 weeks, that's when I did all my online teaching... in the end sometimes I had a kid who was like kind of in the corner – ok, just keep going – and I only see the top of their head or the scroll"(15:20) Where do students get their violins? The generic-type Paganini brand! (The virtuoso violinist and composer with huge hands who could play tenths like nobody's business and who was rumored to have sold his soul to the devil so he could achieve such mastery in his performances).(16:04) The mysterious full-size violin and its surprise restoration value :)(18:42) Final anecdote with quote coming full circle to the story of her first lesson with Mark Lakirovich: double stop scales! "If you work hard but don't take things too seriously, it'll be fine."Adorable video here. https://www.nzmusicteachers.co.nz/emma-colligan/ A big thank you to Emma Colligan for joining me for this amazing conversation and paving the way for this up and coming Kiwi violin rockstars, and to Mark Lakirovich for teaching us all.

Here's a blooper reel from this season. Hope this brings a smile or a laugh to you when you listen! Links are to their highlight episodes, available on Spotify: (0:00) Aryn Aiken - can you tell I looked at your questions and was like, these are great, then put it away(0:09) Nathan Manohar - we went on a very long tangent! like Caesar ciphers and stuff...(0:24) Shubham Kulkarni - is this too much right now? no, no, no. ok(0:35) Adam Wong - grindstones and noses, your nose or their noses?(0:54) Stan Broere - moving the couch to mini satellites 10cm x 10cm x 10cm which for some reason I found hilarious(2:30) Sydney Grange - good to reflect, pulling the pieces of the story together(2:46) Cameron Akker - pop guard, I think I need to upgrade my equipment!(3:05) Adam Wong - instagram.com, baby!(3:09) in conversation with Emma Colligan - UPCOMING from our teacher's phone calls to semiquavers to virtual teaching when the kid only appears at the bottom corner of the screen with the top of their head and the scroll(3:51) Gustav Ferri - I kept mishearing what he was saying, from dinosaurs to sorcery!(4:31) from learning cantonese with my aunt - couldn't remember where we were going(4:42) Noah Fechtor-Pradines - UPCOMING on public transportation in Manhattan and his foldable bikeHave a wonderful day.

Cameron Akker, a 2019 Electrical Engineering graduate from Harvard University, now works on global supply management for micromobility at Lyft. Occasionally, he also writes amazing articles on Medium. One is the basis for this episode! Check out his article, "Overcoming the Harvard Psyche" here: https://medium.com/@camakk/overcoming-the-harvard-psyche-b812f224e1ab.(0:30) Introducing Cameron!(1:04) What is the Harvard Psyche and how did you come up with the idea? (20:08) How to overcome/deal with the Harvard psyche? (4:30) You defied the call to “specialize in one thing” with your experience taking 13+ courses by cross registering at MIT.(10:10) Let's talk about bandwidth – how did you manage?(14:03) Moving into career experiences, how’s it going with micro-mobility at Lyft? (16:24) Based on your experience, what is your advice for early graduates pursuing tech and project management?(25:22) What is the narrative behind your career arc? Universal access to education (25:40) (30:12) Ties back to how you structured your own education. Big proponent of self-education.(32:05) How to provide free access when everyone's so focused on making money? How to get around the homo economicus? (33:10) "That's the result of wanting to get your worth for what you put into it. My motives for doing this kind of thing is that I've been helped immensely by the free resources in everything I've tried to learn. It's much like the open source software community. If you're trying to implement something for your own project, you tap into the community knowledge database and can pull something from it, with the expectation that you'll give back at some point in the future." – Cameron Akker(34:03) Check out Superminds by MIT Professor Thomas Malone (34:17) "The future isn't going to be decided by a bunch of individuals. ... The shared intellect of a large variety of people might be the largest resource yet when it comes to progressing humanity. Think of Wikipedia. Very small ownership team, basically maintained by the same internet that uses it. So in the model of wikipedia, how can we have more of these types of platforms? ...enriching the society that engages with this material. I think that investing in education that is freely available is not pouring money into the void; it is pouring it into a society that then reflects that back, much in the way that something like wikipedia reflects that value back onto itself." – Cameron Akker(35:45) Super elucidating! Thank you!You rock, Cameron. Keep walking the talk!Everyone, thanks for listening, and have a fantastic day.

Dr. William Lo is a resident physician in radiation oncology in St. Louis, and MD-PhD graduate from Harvard Medical School. We talk about his journey into medicine (including recent experience on the COVID front line), engage in a rapid-fire round of personal questions, and top it off with career and relationship advice. (0:33) Introduction (1:08) How residency program works and fits into the overall training program for doctors and physician-scientists (2:30) Recent experience with pediatric cancer cases, thinking about how to optimize radiation dosage to reduce recurrence rate and minimize potential long-term complications. (4:21) Connecting three dots getting to where he is today – from the Canadian Red Cross to summer classes (6:35) and a research program with the Princess Margaret Cancer Center (7:00) alongside an undergraduate computer engineering degree to personal experience with cancer care in the last year of medical school (7:44). (9:03) Being on COVID front line – "Overnight, some of the wards were turned into intensive care units" with beds for the patients, and nurses were now ICU nurses (for the intensive care unit) – coming up with ways for family members to visit in person with enough personal protective equipment (PPE) or virtually with iPads, thinking about tough end of life conversations and moments. "You really are dedicating your life to the welfare of these patients." (11:00) (16:15) Deciding whether to do rapid fire questions to lift the mood or dive into advice right away... went with rapid fire questions! (16:49) One thing everybody should know about maintaining their health – eat well, exercise, maintain mind body and spirit. (17:14) Most outlandish other career path you would pursue... pilot and astronaut! (18:12) Favorite thing to do in free time – drive around, take road trips, explore new places, (like the lake where he took my call). (18:50) One of your ultimate life questions... having been exposed to cancer care it reveals how unpredictable life can be, so how can I really do everything that I love to do within the time I have, and do the best I can so that I don't regret it? How do I seize every opportunity to expand my horizons and do things I didn't think were possible? (20:02) Something somebody has said that made you feel awesome ... gratitude from cancer patients, especially with respect to how the care was provided. "It's the way you go about it, the way you explain things to people." "People don't really remember how smart you are, until you show them how much you care about them as an individual, whether or not you are able to cure their disease." (21:27) Three core values you strive to live by... #1 Integrity (true to your word and yourself), #2 Happiness (enjoy what you do), #3 Optimism (that things will be better) (22:34) Top advice for people who want to go into medicine (22:53) – "have the perseverance and dedication" to see it through. "It's a long career path, but also really rewarding." "We work very very long hours, especially during our training. There's a lot to learn and sometimes very little time to learn all of it." (24:10) "But this is a good time to go into medicine because things are transforming, e.g. through telemedicine and using tech to overcome challenges associated with the pandemic." (25:07) Advice for relationships e.g. patients, family, or personal life. (25:28) "You can build the best relationships with people if you're really genuine about each interaction. You can build relationships with a lot of people, but you can also build very deep relationships with fewer people, but really meaningful ones. There's obviously a balance there." (26:04) Value your long-term deeper relationships, and remember the people who've helped you along the way. We're all standing on the shoulders of giants, as the saying goes. William's one of those people who's helped me along my journey as my freshman advisor in college. Thanks William, you rock! Keep walking the talk :)